An interactive long read · the ctg. token price index · September 2026
ctg. interactive
The price of thinking.
A token is the unit that AI is sold by, and the price of one has fallen further and faster than almost anything in the history of technology. Except when it has not. Here is what a thought actually costs in September 2026, why the number is so slippery, and the one habit that separates a $14,000 bill from a $200 one: stop sending every task to the smartest model. Two calculators inside price your own workload, and your own routing.
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Prologue
Act I / the menu
What every frontier model charges, September 2026.
Act ii / the collapse
The price of a fixed amount of intelligence is in free fall.
Cost of gpt-4-class intelligence over time
Cheapest blended $ per million tokens to reach ~gpt-4 capability. Log scale. Hover for the model.
Act iii / intelligence per dollar
The real question is not what a model costs. It is what it costs to be smart.
Intelligence vs price, today's frontier
Capability (ctg index) against blended $ per million tokens, log price axis. Up and to the left wins. Hover any model.
Act iv / price your own thinking
What does your workload actually cost?
Act v / route your traffic
Why is your best model answering your easiest questions?
Act vi / why the number is slippery
Seven ways the sticker price lies.
Act vii / the subsidy
The price you pay and the price it costs are not the same number.